Former LVCO conductor forges ahead

GO MUSIC

May 17, 2007|By Philip A. Metzger Special to The Morning Call - Freelance

The fact that the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra has ceased operation after 27 seasons does not mean that its conductor, Donald Spieth, is retired. In fact, you can hear him conduct a chamber orchestra, albeit one without a name, this Sunday at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The orchestra includes many of the musicians who were part of the chamber orchestra. There will be 12 string players, fewer than the orchestra's normal complement.

The program takes advantage of something that was not possible in the orchestra's regular venue, the Baker Center at Muhlenberg College -- use of an organ. And, for that matter, an organist. The music director and organist of Cathedral Church, Russell Jackson, will also take part in the concert. Jackson will solo in two organ concerti, one by Handel and one by Bach. The combination of the church's fine organ and the string orchestra is a musical occasion not to be missed.

The program also includes one of Benjamin Britten's most delightful early works, the Simple Symphony, the delight suggested by the names of the movements: "Boisterous Bourée," "Playful Pizzicato," "Sentimental Sarabande" and "Frolicsome Finale."

Britten composed the symphony for student orchestra in 1934, when he was 21 years old. He was, however, already experienced, having been a prolific writer of music since childhood. Although the technical demands of the piece are suitable for amateurs -- an ensemble of amateurs gave it its first performance under Britten's direction -- its musicality will engage any level.

The program also includes a Divertimento by Mozart.

Spieth is active in other ways as well. This summer he'll conduct a run at Muhlenberg College of Gilbert & Sullivan's eccentric operetta (well, all G&S operettas are eccentric) but not often heard "Ruddigore." This musical melodrama, with ghosts appearing from mirrors, will keep Spieth busy on the podium, and, no doubt, audiences thoroughly entertained.

Spieth will also be conducting a new ensemble at Lehigh University called the Monocacy Chamber Orchestra. Its first concert will be Sept. 15 in Zoellner Arts Center.

As Spieth explained, this will be an orchestra made up of professional musicians from the area. In September they'll play a varied program of recent compositions and old favorites. Old favorites will be Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola solo and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. The new works will include a new composition by Paul Salerni, chairman of Lehigh's music department, called "Monocacy Tarantella," as well as Salerni's transcription of Astor Piazola's "Grand Tango." The program will also include a new piece by Stephen Sametz of Lehigh called "Orison."

A February concert is not finalized, but will, Spieth said, include Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat" ("The Soldier's Tale") for narrator and small ensemble, plus other 20th-century compositions.

When the Fountain Ensemble makes a visit to Wesley Church in Bethlehem Friday night, courtesy of the Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, the quintet will delve into the rich but rather rarefied area of chamber music with clarinet.

All three pieces on the program are for clarinet and strings. These include two of the most popular works in the genre, Johannes Brahms' rich and reflective late work, the Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115, and this work's direct opposite, the playful and showy Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 34, of Carl Maria von Weber.

In between these two traditional favorites is a new work, "Tichouf Oumori," written for the Fountain Ensemble by its composer-in-residence, young Israeli composer Jonathan Keren, a 25-year-old recent graduate of the Juilliard School.

Since this work has not yet been recorded, I asked Keren for his comments on his offspring.

"[The title] is the name of a song that was written for the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Koulthoum. For years I was haunted by its melody, for the combination of beautiful contour and striking symmetry, and in 2005 I decided to write a piece under the inspiration of the tune. My clarinet quintet "Tichouf Oumori' is only loosely based on the tune, and is constructed in the form of a metamorphosis, where its six short movements are connected through association in a stream-of-consciousness way.

"The tune itself is obscured from the listener at the start, and gradually fragments of it appear, disappear and reappear until its full exposure in the fifth, slow movement. The piece was written with dedication to clarinetist Gilad Harel and the Fountain Chamber Ensemble."